Vermont Senate Committee Votes To Approve Minimum Wage Hike

A Vermont Senate committee has voted to approve increasing the state minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The Senate Economic Development Committee moved to support the measure in a 4 - 1 vote. Under the plan, the minimum wage would be raised gradually until it reaches $15 an hour by 2024.

Vermont Public Radio reports committee chairman Democratic Senator Michael Sirotkin says the bill will help residents struggling with income inequality and pump money back into the state's economy. Sirotkin says small businesses will be able to adjust because the raise is incremental.

Senator David Soucy, a Republican, voted against the measure and worries it could hurt small businesses that can't afford to pay higher wages.

In How May I Help You?: An Immigrant's Journey from MBA to Minimum Wage, Deepak Singh chronicles his downward mobility as an immigrant to a small town in Virginia. Armed with an MBA from India, Singh can get only a minimum-wage job in an electronics store. Every day he confronts unfamiliar American mores, from strange idioms to deeply entrenched racism.